Another Me
by Tsukiko no Yuki
Summary: [AU][SasuSakuSai][NaruHina][ShikaIno][NejiTen] 6 scientists. 4 guinea pigs. Throw in a cloning experiment and escaping clones, and let the hunt begin.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I badly wish I did! If that had been the case, I'd have forced Kishi-chan to reveal what's going to happen in next week's chapter of the manga...**_**

* * *

**_

_**Prologue: Honeys that Make Money**_

"Sakura? Hey, Sakura!"

Sakura opened one turquoise-green eye lazily and yawned. Her sister, who was adopted by the florist family Yamanaka and who was by the name Ino, frowned.

"Sakura," said she reproachfully. "It's very rude to yawn into others' faces!"

Sakura grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Ino-pig."

"If you call me Ino-pig one more time, Forehead Girl..."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Sakura yawned once more, but this time she covered her mouth with her left hand.

"I've some amazing news!" Ino beamed as she flopped down on the couch next to Sakura. The pink-haired girl with green eyes groaned.

"What now? Has Sasuke-kun looked at you?"

"Yes!" Ino squealed. Sakura rolled her eyes. Uchiha Sasuke had been one of the most popular boys in school since they were in kindergarten, and even had his own fanclub. Even now, when they were out of school and were twenty-eight years old, the amount of members in his fanclub just kept increasing.

Sakura herself had had a crush on the said boy, who was a true prodigy in _everything _and looked really good but had an arrogant personality and was cold to practically everyone (it wasn't for nothing that he was known as the 'ice prince'), and she had therefore shared a rivalry with her stepsister, but now the crush was over. It had only lasted a couple of years, as a matter of fact, before Sakura gave up on it.

"But that's not the fabulous news," Ino continued excitedly. "Guess three times what they are!"

Sakura moaned again. Ino was still as childish as ever, despite their age. But then again, she had always been... almost always. Sakura quivered at the memories of the days spent in that dark cellar with her stepsisters... her stepfather had become psychotic and they had to hide... share the little food they found in the cellar... try to spend their time doing something else than try to fix the broken lock so that he wouldn't get in... and then the orphanage -

She shivered once more. Better not think about it.

"Are you freezing or something?" Ino asked, wrinkling her forehead. "You're weird, Forehead Girl. It's in the middle of the summer, mildly warm, and everyone's walking around in tops and shorts and you're _shivering _in that horrible _red _wool sweater of yours?"

"Everyone doesn't fancy purple as you do, Ino-pig," Sakura teased. "No, I'm not freezing. Okay, let me guess. Hmm... Lee-san has gotten rid of his green clothes?"

"No. I wish he did, though, they're horrid... if he could at least get some purple... but then again, he wouldn't look good in that."

"Uh... Lee-san has shaved his eyebrows?"

"Oh my god, _that _would be fabulous news! Unfortunately not. Why do you only ask about Lee, anyway? Do you..." Ino's lips curled into an evil smirk. "... have something going on?"

"What?! No, how can you even think that? We're friends, Ino, _friends_!" Sakura exclaimed, startled, but she could still feel her cheeks burn.

"Well, I've heard rumors that you've been going out..."

"Yes, once! And believe me, I won't do it again!"

"Oh? Something terrible happened?"

"No, but I just realized we were supposed to be friends! Nothing else!"

"But you'd look good together... and he used to have a crush on you..."

"_Used to_, yeah. Not anymore."

"I wonder that." Ino rolled her eyes. "The way he looks at you, the way you talk to each other, the –"

"Anyhow, what's the great news? If you don't tell me now I'm going to chuck you out of this house, because this is _my _home, Ino-pig!"

"So?" Ino crossed her arms. "I remember that we promised each other we were always welcome to visit each other in case our adoptive parents were mean?"

"Yeah, but your adoptive parents are not mean! Mrs. and Mr. Yamanaka are really kind!"

"I know." Ino sneered. "But still..."

"Okay, get to the point _now_!"

"Whoa, lots of energy today, I see." Ino stuck her tongue out at Sakura. "Yeah, the great news are that... we've jobs! Isn't that great?"

Sakura's eyes widened. "You aren't joking, Ino-pig?"

"Certainly not, Forehead Girl."

"What's the job anyway?"

"Guinea pigs!" Ino smiled excitedly.

"Guinea pigs?" Sakura repeated, in disbelief.

"Yeah, we're going to be guinea pigs for this really huge experiement..."

"Chotto matte, Ino-pig! You tell me that you've applied _me _–"

" – _and _Tenten _and _Hinata _and _me," Ino added impatiently.

"- to some weird psycho experiment as a... _guinea pig_?"

"It's some weird psycho experiment! It's Sasuke-kun's experiment!"

Sakura groaned once more. "I should've known. What's he doing anyway? Try to transform us into apes?"

"No, actually not," Ino responded poisonously, "He's trying to clone people."

"And what if that stupid experiment goes all wrong? What if... what if we _die_, Ino, or even worse, become psychos?"

Ino's face screwed up immediately. Her sulk disappeared and was replaced with a grimace out of a mix of different emotions; fear, anger, discomfort... the memories of their stepfather woke to life again, and the two sisters shuddered.

"Ino? Sakura? I knew you'd be here!" A girl with brown hair that was in two buns on her head and hazel eyes appeared in the doorway, wearing a dark turquoise chi pao and a pair of a little baggy black pants.

"Hi, Tenten," the two other sisters said in chorus.

"Hey," she grinned. "So, Ino, you told me you had a job for me?"

"And me," a girl's voice added behind Tenten. A girl with short blue hair and white eyes appeared in the doorway, wearing a black top and a black skirt.

"Hi, Hinata," Ino and Sakura said at the same time again.

"Yeah, you guys are guinea pigs for a clone experiment of Sasuke-kun's!" Ino burst out happily. Tenten frowned.

"Guinea pigs? I think I've heard about it. It's Sasuke, Neji, Naruto and Shikamaru doing it, right?"

"I don't know," Ino shrugged. "Sasuke-kun said the other day – oh yes, he spoke to me! Can you believe it? _He_ spoke to _me_! – that he needed some guinea pigs for an experiment and I applied us four at once! I mean, he needed exactly four guinea pigs, so why not? We all know each other, we might get a bonus and I get to spend more time with _Sasuke-kun_!"

"Ino, _we _aren't ecstatic about seeing Sasuke every single day, okay?" Tenten frowned. "Besides... anything could happen in that experiment. We could die, we could lose our memories, we could be paralyzed for the rest of our life, we could get deadly illnesses or..." She shuddered. "Become psychotic."

The four girls grimaced at the thought.

"Well, it won't. Sasuke-kun said that it was perfectly safe, just that he needed someone to actually be cloned..."

"Why don't they try themselves?"

"They can't. They need four people to handle the machines and nobody but them can do it," Ino explained.

"Hmm. Well, it sounds better...," Sakura said doubtfully.

"Yay! I knew you guys would do it! Thanks!" Ino burst out and threw her arms around each of the three girls in turn. "Well, I've got to tell Sasuke-kun about it! See you later!"

"Hey, wait, how much money do we get, Ino? Ino!!"

But Ino was already out of the house.

* * *

So what do you guys think? This was composed a looong time ago, when I first started writing This Is (Not) My First Time, but due to my laptop malfunctioning, and my very limited USB memory, I was only able to retrieve a few documents, thus having to abandon this fic. However, my laptop has (miraculously enough) stopped malfunctioning, even though it's still incapable to access Internet. But I still managed to save this.

Anyway... please review! Should I continue with this or not?


End file.
